Using competencies for improvement and development

Competencies are skills, abilities or qualities that you can develop. From competencies, you can then create a competency profile. A competency profile is the combination of knowledge, skills, experience and personal characteristics that determines success in a role. It answers the question: 'what must an employee know, be able to do and be to successfully fulfill the role?' When determining competencies for a profile, the role (not the employee) is the starting point.

Tip: Use competencies at the behavioral level to make it crystal clear to employees what they need to know, be able to do and be to perform their role well. Make improvement and development agreements in the GOOD conversations.

We have listed a number of examples of competencies across 10 different topics.

1. Leadership skills:

• Communication: Effective presenting, listening and giving feedback.
• Team building: Developing collaboration skills and promoting team cohesion.
• Conflict management: Learning to deal with conflicts and finding constructive solutions.

2. Technical skills:

• Software use: Training in specific software packages such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc.
• Data analysis: Courses on statistical analysis, data mining and visualization.
• Digital marketing: Training in SEO, content marketing, social media management, etc.

3. Soft skills:

• Time management: Effective planning, prioritizing and organizing tasks.
• Problem-solving ability: Developing critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Stress management: Techniques for stress management and promoting resilience.

4. Project management skills:

• Planning and organization: Creating project plans and managing resources.
• Team coordination: Leading and motivating project teams toward successful project execution.
• Risk management: Identifying, evaluating and managing project risks.

5. Customer orientation and customer service skills

• Empathy and communication: Building positive relationships with customers through effective communication and empathy.
• Complaint handling: Learning to deal with complaints and providing appropriate solutions to maintain customer satisfaction.

6. Sales and negotiation skills

• Sales skills: Developing persuasion, negotiation techniques and closing deals.
• Relationship management: Building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers and partners.

7. Innovation and creativity

• Idea generation: Stimulating creative thinking and generating innovative ideas.
• Problem-solving ability: Finding creative solutions to business challenges and promoting a culture of innovation.

8. Cross-cultural communication and diversity training

• Cultural awareness: Understanding different cultural norms and values and promoting intercultural communication.
• Diversity training: Creating an inclusive work environment and learning to deal with diversity in the workplace.

9. Compliance and ethics training

• Laws and regulations: Understanding relevant laws and regulations within the industry and complying with compliance requirements.
• Ethics and integrity: Promoting ethical behavior and making well-considered decisions within an ethical framework.

10. Safety training

• First aid: Providing first aid in emergency situations and promoting a safe work environment.
• Fire safety: Training in fire prevention, evacuation procedures and firefighting techniques.

Every employee also has a so-called personal profile. They have followed education and training, giving them knowledge ('knowing'). They have then applied this knowledge in their work, making them experienced in 'something' ('being able to'). In their working life and beyond, through trial and error, they have also increasingly come to know themselves ('being').

More and more organizations take the personal profile as a starting point in Good conversations. The focus is on further developing competencies that employees already have a good grasp of. Why not turn a seven into an eight? Employees then not only receive recognition for their strengths, they are also allowed to focus on things they are good at. This increases job satisfaction and improves performance.

Win-win-win

This approach is not only challenging for employees, it also benefits the organization. After all, it takes blood, sweat and tears to turn a five into a six. This often comes at the expense of job satisfaction because the focus is always on weaknesses.

How to identify employees' qualities and put them in their strength? This can be done by not talking about their shortcomings but about employees' strengths in conversations. Answers to the following questions bring clarity:

• What gives me the greatest job satisfaction? What do I most like to do at work?
• When are you in the flow and does it seem like time stands still?
• What kind of work do I enjoy? Which talents are called upon?
• What do I often receive compliments about? What does that say about what I do well?
• When do I go home whistling (or to work)? What have I achieved? Which of my qualities do I use?
• What success do I find most important recently? What did I do that contributed to the success? And what was the effect? Does this say something about what I do well?

Use job crafting to put employees even more in their strength. Use competencies to map where employees already excel and make agreements on how they will make even more use of this, how they will get even better at it.

Want to know more about staff turnover? And how you can tackle it? Also read our blog 'Preventing staff turnover: 10 tips & calculate it yourself!'.